@bud123 : Harvard isn’t that bad for STEM (B average) and also, except Brown in some case, Introductory and intermediate STEM courses for pre-healths are substantially more difficult content wise at many of those schools (one of Princeton’s biology sequence is basically a biophysics/physical biology lite course…Harvard mixes lots of organic chemistry and serious biochemistry/molecular cell biology in and doesn’t really focus much on memorization). Stanford and Yale just over-curve many classes. Also, remember that the SAT/ACT is primarily multiple choice. Intro. STEM courses typically have free response components (often most of the test) and also have substantial variation in student prep when it comes to exposure to the given subject (it matters how they test in that subject and not on a general test that is extremely predictable). Like a student with AP credit in chemistry is generally going to have an advantage in gen. chem 1 (some would argue they shouldn’t be in the class) at even elites, even if not necessarily an A (often the B grades are the ones a little too comfortable so underestimate the course and study less, but they do less work for the B grade than others with less experience), whereas the student who is rusty or has no AP experience will naturally have to work harder or struggle(these effects have been reported in the literature though there is some that suggest that there may be little difference between 4 and 5). At those other places, you have more Seimens winners and those who have done or made training camp for national and international Olympiads which is a completely different beast versus AP or IB and certainly an SAT subject test:
Look for yourselves:
http://icho2014.hus.edu.vn/Exam-and-Solutions-Previous-IChOs/0001/01/Exam-and-Solutions-2013-202.html
There are honestly few college instructors (even at elites) who chose to write examinations asking these caliber questions:
Seriously, go compare it to AP/IB. I would argue that even the national level may be a little harder than AP/IB, or SATII test.
To say that “most” students at elite schools are used to taking exams anything like that is a stretch (and Harvard tries to achieve it with its 1st semester “general biology” course or its second semester “organic for life sciences” course) so imagine when an instructor tries to give them a taste of what I would consider the real messiness that is scientific problem solving. Even HYPMSCh students have classes with low exam means in STEM and econ because the instructors are trying shake them out of thinking at the levels most of them did in HS (as Faline said, regardless of what you made on the SAT/ACT, your in college, and at an excellent one at that). Unfortunately, that will be a shock to many great SAT/ACT testers. It hurts at first, but questions at those levels do represent how one needs to think to be able to be successful in the field. Furthermore, it demonstrates a key thing about doing real science: You don’t always know everything and certainly will not always get it right on the first time especially since the problems in real life usually require much more than regurgitating something you were told or a process you were shown. One has to learn to improvise. I actually enjoy the harder exams, especially in STEM subjects I enjoy because it stretches my thinking and tests to see whether I can derive something else for a new scenario or if I can somehow “see” the concepts I learned in a seemingly foreign situation. One may not always “get it”, but it feels good when you do and is quite an achievement versus simply struggling in the exam because they are asking for nitpicky details that will not be retained in the near and certainly not distant future. Problem solving skills are lasting and typically STEM exams that require a high level of it over several items yield lower means than normal. That is what the scaling is for.